switching from paxil to prozac

[annieh2525]

I have recently switched from paxil to prozac because of weight gain my doc told me to just stop taking the paxil and take 1\2 pill of the prozac for 6 days then take to full dose after 6 days everything was going go until the 5 day of taking the prozac now i am have anxiety attacks and i just feel so out of it i was just wondering if it was just withdrawls from the paxil or has the prozac even had time to kick in yet just tired of feeling so down and out. will it ever go away

[Taybey]

Im finally off paxil thank the good lord the weight gain was unbearable.  

[cxc]

I have taken paxil CR 12.5 for 6 years. I am preparing myself to become a mom. I am very afraid from suffering the horrible withdrawls if I quit paxil. My doctor says that it's better to be on prozac during pregnancy. Can someone tell me where to find acurate research? I don't want to harm my baby but at the same I am super afraid of the withdrawls.

[Roger Gould, M.D.]

There are many ways of making the switich, one being wean off paxil, then start prozac; another being both at once, one declinng while adding to the other. You seem to be caught in between...the anxiety you feel may not be from withdrawals but from the underlying anxiety breaking through because the prozac has not yet started to work. You might ask your doctor to cover you in the interim , for a week or so, with low doses of daily klonopin...then see in about two weeks how the prozac works alone...

[Paxiled]

Get a different doctor.  This one has no clue how to taper you off Paxil.  Yes, you are suffering from withdrawal, Paxil should never be stopped cold turkey.  Since there's now way to know if Prozac will work for you at all, there's no way to know if you'll metabolize it well, there's no way to know if it will do what Paxil did.  They are different drugs.  You need to withdraw from the Paxil first, not add new side effects from a new drug, until you've withdrawn.